US Air Force announces plan to assassinate molluscs with hypersonic missile
The United States Air Force (USAF) has issued a strangely specific threat to certain mollusc species living in the area of an upcoming weapons test.
US military website The Warzone recently spotted that in an environmental report relating to future tests at the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site around Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the USAF stated that a test of its AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon hypersonic boost-glide vehicle, or ARRW, would lead to four top-shell snails and up to 90 giant clams being killed.
It is not known what the animals involved have done to induce the ire of the world's mightiest air force, but it could be that the unfortunate creatures are the innocent victims of a fit of USAF pique, relating to a series of mishaps in the AGM-183A project which have been described by sources as "dumb mistakes".
The test of the ARRW (handily pronounced "arrow") was originally scheduled for 5 April, but the missile embarrassingly failed to detach from its B-52H mothership, causing the launch to be aborted. The test has since been rescheduled for sometime in July.
